Deakin staff, students rally on torture backing

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Deakin University staff and students have staged a protest
against an article by two academics advocating torture.

The article has also angered a prominent philosopher, who has
branded the academics' work "deeply disturbing".

Up to 100 staff and students rallied at Deakin's Burwood campus
yesterday, lighting candles and singing outside the law
building.

A staff member said the torture debate had stirred up strong
feelings on the Burwood campus.

The protest came after The Age last week published an
extract of a paper by the head of Deakin's law school, Professor
Mirko Bagaric, and fellow law lecturer Julie Clarke, in which they
said torture was a "morally defensible" interrogation method - even
if it caused the death of innocent people - if many lives were at
risk.

The paper has also drawn criticism from philosopher John
Kleinig, who is based at the Australian National University but
also heads New York's Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics.

Delivering a lecture at Melbourne University on "Ticking bombs
and torture warrants", Professor Kleinig said the Deakin lecturers'
argument - that torture in extreme situations may be justified
because the interests of many can outweigh the suffering of a few -
was inhumane and illogical.

However, he conceded that if Melbourne were under threat of a
nuclear attack, which was then averted by torturing a confession
from a suspect, he would be relieved.

"That may be the one situation where we as a society might say,
'You went out on a limb and did something we're totally opposed to,
but it had a good result, so we forgive you'," Professor Kleinig
said.